Talking with Matt Corby in his Kombi at Woodford Festival

December 28, 2013

Listen to Elo and Matt’s chat about fame, ego, God, surfing, spirituality and his new track ‘What the devil has made’ that sits on the soundtrack for the soon to be released movie ‘Spirit of Akasha – A Celebration of Morning of the Earth’, here:

I’ve only ever heard great things about the Woodford Folk Festival.

When Charlie’s mate, living rock legend, Sam Cutler, the former tour manager for The Rolling Stones, told us that it is hands down the best festival in Australia, we decided to pack up the car and hit the road.

Fourteen hours of drive time later, we turned off the M1 motorway and headed inland for the festival town.

Somewhere along the journey the air had turned to tropical thick, the vegetation had become lush and beautiful, eleven shades of green. Heavy grey clouds were hanging overhead that threatened to crack open above the 18,000+ campers in Woodford’s tent city, with little warning. There was a moodiness about.

A road trip is as much about good tunes as it is good scenery, and for most of the trip we’d been listening to the much anticipated and soon-to-be released soundtrack to surf movie ‘Spirit of Akasha – A Celebration of Morning of the Earth’.

We’d been looping between track 1 and 5 a lot… 5 being Matt Corby’s ‘What the devil has made’ and suddenly, I was met by the feeling that I’d like to interview him for the Soul Sessions tribe.

He seems like a guy with lots of heart and emotional depth and he was headlining the first night of the festival.

So, I sent a text message to the powers that be, and the message came back that my interview with Matt Corby was on for 6pm in his dressing room. Perfect.

When I arrived back stage a few hours later, he popped his head out of his tent into the open air, bare footed, dressed in plum coloured fitted pants and a pale blue shirt.

His long curls were swept over to one side and hanging around his face, but all I really noticed was the pull of his enormous eyes, translucent and blue.

“Hey Matt, Eloise,” I said as I shook his hand professionally. “How are you?”

I told him it was for Soul Sessions, a movement of people interested in getting out of their heads to live a heart-centred life that they love instead.

I also told him that a number of other awesome supporting media outlets will most likely share it through their digital channels, and he was good with that.

As we stood there, talented performers were roaming all around us preparing for the festival’s opening night ceremony – circus ring leaders on stilts, one-eyed monsters, and soon-to-be beautiful burning heart carriers.

Concerned about the quality of our interview recording, I said; “Is there somewhere we can go for a little quiet?”

“Sure is, we can go to my van,” Matt said.

“Is it a Kombi?” my 8 year old son asked innocently.

For the past three months, we have been exploring the option of getting our own piece of Kombi history to cruise around in, so Kombi’s are front of mind for him right now.

“Yes, it is actually,” Matt said. Whoa! We all recognised the little shared moment of cool.

A few minutes later, after some mandtory Kombi admiration and chit chat at its sliding door, Charlie, Max, Soul Sessions fly girl Justine Ruszcyk and I were all bundling into the beautiful old white van for some hang time with Corby.

“Do you mind if I smoke,” he asked as he opened the window and pulled out a rollie. What was I going to say?

“Not at all. It’s your Kombi,” I answered before launching into the interview.

“So, my first question has two parts,” I said. “When did you figure out you wanted to be a rock star and at what point did you realise that you’d actually done it… that this was going to be your full time gig for real?”

You can listen to Matt’s answer to this question, here.

While we didn’t exactly stick to the plan, you can find the rest of my official interview questions below.

Questions for Corby

1) When did you figure out you wanted to be a rock star and at what point did you realise that you’d actually done it… that this was going to be your full time gig for real?

2) Soul Sessions encourages people to live from the heart and go after their dream life to make it real. Is playing music your dream life…? and if so, what does it feel like to be doing that?

3) What challenges have you had to navigate along the way? Did all come easy? If not, when did you have to dig deep to keep the dream alive… and how did you do that?

4) What does surfing mean to you and what role has it played in your life over the years?

5) Did you have a relationship with the cult surfing movie Morning of the Earth prior to being invited to create original track for the Spirit of Akasha soundtrack? Tell me about it.

6) Your song on the soundtrack is called ‘What the Devil Has Made’. How did you approach the creation of this song? And tell me about the journey through to the finished product?

7) Is surfing an artform? A sport? A spiritual practice? What is it about surfing that sucks people in and keeps them connected to the ocean?

8) Competition surfing has been the big thing for past few decades… but there seems to be a movement back to the appreciation of the soul surfer, the guy or girl who chooses surfing as a lifestyle not as a by-product of life. What do you understand the soul surfer to be? What is special about that lifestyle?

9) What’s your best life advice for people who have a dream? Whether that be to play music for a living or to surf every day?